John Hiatt “Have a Little Faith in Me” released

Have a Little Faith in Me John Hiatt

Writer(s): John Hiatt (see lyrics here) Released: 5/29/1987 (album cut on Bring the Family) First Charted: -- Peak: 37 CO, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 13.30 video, 80.10 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “For years, John Hiatt was in a category of his own. His own record company didn’t know where to place him. He is undoubtedly under Americana’s broad banner, but would you say he was country, blues or new wave? No matter where you peg Hiatt, he has produced noteworthy music throughout his career.” AU The singer/songwriter was born in 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He went to Nashville in 1972 and became a staff songwriter, crafting songs covered by Feddy Fender, Willie Nelson, Three Dog Night, and others. He released his first album, Hangin’ Around the Observatory, in 1974 but didn’t find any chart success on the Billboard album chart until more than a decade later with 1987’s Bring the Family, which blogger Lary Glickman called “a country-rock masterpiece.” GO It featured a stellar lineup of guitarist Ry Cooder, bassist Nick Lowe, and drummer Jim Keltner. The four later reformed in 1992 as the group Little Village. The album produced Hiatt’s first mainstream rock hit with “Thank You Girl.” It also had “Thing Called Love,” which was a #11 mainstream rock hit for Bonnie Raitt in 1989. In 1994, the song “Alone in the Dark” was featured in the 1994 James Cameron movie True Lies. It was “Have a Little Faith in Me,” however, that became the album’s most memorable song. It has been recorded by multiple artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Joe Cocker, Bill Frisell, Jewel, Chaka Khan, Delbert McClinton, Mandy Moore, and Dolly Parton. It has been featured in multiple movies, including Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), Benny & Joon (1993), Phenomenon (1996), and more. Hiatt wrote the song after sobering up from drugs and alcohol. While trying to record it, he learned his estranged wife had committed suicide. WK Producer John Chelew encouraged Hiatt to sit down at the piano and run through a quick version of the song to let everyone hear it fresh. Chelew taped the performance, unbeknownst to Hiatt, and it ended up the version on the album. GO “Hiatt whispers, then sings in falsetto. He strains to share passion and emotion. The lyrics are not groundbreaking, but they tell a truth. He is singing to us. He is singing for us.” GO “The simplicity of the lyrics and the arrangement let the song breathe in the way it should.” AU Resources: AU Americana-UK.com (8/5/2024). “For the Sake of the Song: John Hiatt ‘Have a Little Faith in Me’” by Andy Short GO GlickmanOnline.com (6/23/2017). “One Perfect Song: ‘Have a Little Faith in Me’” by Larry Glickman WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/21/2025.

Suzanne Vega “Luka” charted

Luka Suzanne Vega

Writer(s): -- (see lyrics here) First Charted: May 23, 1987 Peak: 3 US, 4 CB, 3 RR, 3 AC, 15 AR, 1 CO, 23 UK, 5 CN, 21 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 85.73 video, 87.45 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The ‘80s and ‘90s saw the rise of female singers rooted in folk and alternative rock such as Tracy Chapman, Melissa Etheridge, the Indigo Girls, Sheryl Crow, and Sarah McLachlan. They were all preceded, however, by Suzanne Vega who gained a following first at college radio, but eventually on the pop charts. As author Toby Creswell said, “Vega almost single-handedly started her own female folk boom.” TC Vega was born in 1959 in California but grew up in New York. She attended the High School of the Performing Arts and started playing small clubs at Greenwich Village while studying at Barnard College. She released her self-titled debut in 1985. It didn’t gain a lot of attention in the United States, although it reached #11 in the UK and generated a #21 hit with the song “Marlene on the Wall.” She gained more attention with the track “Left of Center” from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack the next year. On her second album, 1987’s Solitude Standing, Vega “moved from coffee-house folk singing to exotic and unpredictable musical experimentations.” SS The album reached #2 in the UK and #11 in the United States, largely on the strength of her top-5 hit “Luka.” The song, which was actually written before her debut album, SF was nominated for Grammys for Record and Song of the Year. It featured backing vocals by Shawn Colvin, another folk/alternative rock female singer who would rise to acclaim and commercial success in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The song is about a boy who is abused and forbidden to talk about it. Vega based the song on a real boy named Luka who she would see playing with other children in front of her building. He really did live upstairs from her and she met him one day in the elevator. SF She said, “I didn’t know much about him, but he just seemed set apart from these other children…In the song, the boy Luka is an abused child – in real life I don’t think he was. I think he was just different.” WK She revealed years later that the song was also inspired by her own abusive experiences with her stepfather. WK The song was nominated for Grammys for Record and Song of the Year. It featured backing vocals by Shawn Colvin, another folk/alternative rock female singer who would rise to acclaim and commercial success in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 829. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 246-7. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/8/2022; last updated 1/18/2025.

 

U2 hit #1 with “With Or Without You”

With Or Without You U2

Writer(s): Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. (see lyrics here) Released: March 16, 1987 First Charted: March 20, 1987 Peak: 13 US, 13 CB, 12 GR, 13 RR, 23 AC, 15 AR, 1 CO, 4 UK, 11 CN, 9 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.2 UK, 2.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 406.79 video, 821.84 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In the early ‘80s, U2 became one of the bands at the forefront of college rock and the alternative scene. Videos for “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” caught the attention of MTV viewers and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” gave the group their first taste of U.S. mainstream success when the song went top 40. There were bigger things ahead, though, as they were “steadily expanding their reputation as the most exciting rock band of the decade.” SS After growing their audience with their first four albums, they exploded in 1987 as the biggest grossing concert act of the year MTV on the strength of #1 album The Joshua Tree and its chart-topping lead-off single, the “brooding, haunting rock ballad” SS “With Or Without You.” As seems to be a pattern with songs that go on to be iconic, U2 wasn’t sold on the song originally. Not only were they unsure about releasing it as a single, but questioned putting it on the album. MTV Bassist Adam Clayton said, “We’re never going to get that on the radio.” SS While the group agreed it had a strong melody, they considered their initial efforts too sentimental. They experimented with more bass and a drum kit, MTV eventually crafting “a slow burner, with The Edge’s understated guitar and Bono’s subdued vocals building gradually towards a towering climax.” BBC Lyrically, the song showcased an ambiguity that allowed for multiple interpretations. For a group considered “the world’s most earnest Christian rock band” TB there was an obvious spiritual interpretation, but there were other possible meanings as well. The Edge, the band’s guitarist, said the lyrics “were sparked by civil-rights heroes and the ‘new journalism’ of the 1960s.” RS500 Meanwhile the band’s lead singer, Bono, has offered different takes on it. He told Billboard’s Timothy White “there’s nothing more revolutionary than two people loving each other” TC but has also shared that lines like “you give yourself away” delve into how he felt baring his soul via lyrics and interviews; BBC as he said, it is “about how I feel in U2 at times: exposed.” RS500 Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for U2 TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 560. BBC BBC Radio 2 (2004). “Sold on Song Top 100” MTV Rolling Stone (December 7, 2000; Issue 855). “MTV Top 100 Pop Songs.” New York, NY; Straight Arrow Publishing Company. Page 69. RS500 Rolling Stone (12/11/2003). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 246. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 228. Related Links: Last updated 3/26/2023.